Women's Dermatologic Society

By Samantha Schneider, MD When I finished training and started looking for my first “real” job, I knew that negotiating my contract would be part of the deal. I’ve never had to negotiate anything before and really had no idea what I was doing and just saying the word “negotiation” gave me palpitations. I did what any new graduate does and asked my mentors for advice. Fortunately for me, one of them recommended “Never Split the Difference: Negotiating as if your life depended on it” a book by Chris Voss. I bought the book to help with my job negotiation but it has completely changed how I see the majority of conversations in my life. Chris Voss is a former-FBI hostage negotiator who wrote this incredibly articulate, interesting, and helpful book on negotiation – with real life FBI hostage examples! He argues that almost everything in life is a negotiation from the obvious job contract to getting your toddler into bed. I wanted to share a few of the key points so that you too can neg...

By Dr. Alyx Rosen Aigen - WDS Social Media Committee August is national breastfeeding awareness month. We want to take this time to highlight a few key facts regarding breastfeeding. There are numerous benefits of breastfeeding for both the mother and baby. Breast milk can provide the ideal nutrition for infants. It contains antibodies that help babies fight infections and has been shown to lower a baby’s risk of having asthma or allergies. There are also benefits for the breastfeeding mother including helping the uterus return to its pre-pregnancy size, decease risk of breast and ovarian cancer, and it may lower the risk of osteoporosis. Every baby is unique and each mother’s experience with breastfeeding will have it’s own challenges but always remember that fed is best!  As dermatologists, we are often encountered with questions from the pregnant or lactating patient about the safety of common dermatologic topical and systemic (oral/IV) medications. In 2013, WDS member and Co-Ed...

Read featured COVID articles from the WDS Resident Fellow and Young Physicians Committee. Avoiding Burnout During the Pandemic Tips for Running Your Practice During COVID-19 Stories from the Frontline Avoiding Burnout During the Pandemic:  Interviews by Dr. Shari Lipner Dr. Neelam Khan, then a 3rd year dermatology resident at SUNY Downstate, volunteered to care for COVID-19 patients during March 2020, and was redeployed to the COVID-19 wards in April 2020. She related that she worked on a pediatric floor that was cleared out and converted to an adult COVID-19 adult ward. Downstate was vastly under sourced, treatment approaches were not working, and patients were dying daily. She worked long hours and found the experience stressful. Participating in WDS virtual networking events and speaking to other WDS members was one important way that she coped with her experiences. She reported that this time on the wards was the most valuable experience of her life. When I asked her ...

  By Shawna A. Flanagan, MD, FAAD Twenty plus years ago I decided to establish a practice that I could call my own.   However, I soon realized that establishing myself as a female business owner and doctor in a male dominated industry would be no easy feat.   Fast forward to 2020, I have established myself as a successful dermatologist and business owner. As my journey progressed, I somewhat foolishly believed that many of the gender specific roles placed on doctors in the past had dissipated.   However, this notion quickly vanished when one of my younger female colleagues lamented that she was struggling to get her patients to address her by her preferred title, “Doctor”.   Although I am not typically one to get hung up on the details, soon after she brought this issue to my attention I couldn’t help but notice thereafter every instance patients referred to me by my first name and not the title that I had worked so hard to gain.   No matter how hard I tr...

  By Azeen Sadeghian, MD, FAAD Working within healthcare presents many challenges and as a physician, your role extends beyond an understanding of medicine to encompass a wider scope of personal and business functionalities.  Being a physician means being a team leader that works with a wide range of individuals on multiple teams. This includes your innermost medical team such as assistants and residents, as well as an extended outer team including administrators, vendors, societies, etc. You are inherently leading, defining, delegating, and setting expectations every day. This is seen at all levels of medicine from residents managing students, attendings managing residents, physicians managing their care teams, physicians being in administrator roles and more. Managing is central to every role a physician takes and its importance must not be overlooked.  In addition to the type of teams you work with, the scale of projects that physicians manage ranges in size and impo...

  By Jennifer Sorrell, MD While these two books are at total opposite ends of the spectrum from each other, they are both fantastic reads. What do they share in common? Well, both were complete “stabs in the dark” when I picked them and both hooked me within just a few pages.  The Tattooist of Auschwitz  by Heather Morris It’s been awhile since I’ve read a book that has left such an impression on me. The Tattooist of Auschwitz is the true story of a young man’s surprising survival during one of the world’s most horrifying times in history. This book was both at times hard to put down and hard to read, but it was captivating.  Lale Sokolov was Slovakian and was 16 years old when he entered Auschwitz. He was imprisoned there for more than 2.5 years and was a master of languages, which likely saved his life on several occasions. After narrowly escaping an early death from typhus, he was given the job of “Tatowierer”. He was responsible for tattooing the identification n...

By Shadi Damanpour, MD Molly Hinshaw, MD is an Associate Professor and Chief of Dermatopathology at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health and UW Health in Madison, WI where she also completed her undergraduate and medical training. Dr. Hinshaw completed her dermatology residency the University of Wisconsin Hospital and Clinics, and her dermatopathology fellowship at the University of Colorado Health Science Center. Dr. Hinshaw is very active in multiple professional organizations and passionate about her volunteer efforts. She is a member of the UW Hospital medical board and past president of the Wisconsin Dermatological Society. In addition to her role in the WDS, she served as a Section Editor for JAMA Dermatology and an Advisory Board Member of the AAD. She has served on the Board of Directors for Big Brothers Big Sisters of Dane County, matching children with adult mentors. Dr. Hinshaw is the author of over thirty peer-reviewed publications. Her ...